Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) called on Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) to resign from the U.S. Senate on Monday after Menendez was charged with multiple federal felonies last week in connection with an alleged bribery scheme.
“Senator Menendez has broken the public trust and should resign from the U.S. Senate,” said Brown, who chairs the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.
Brown is only the second U.S. Senator to call on Menendez to resign after Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) did so on Saturday.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy (D) said that the allegations in the indictment were “deeply disturbing” because they “implicate national security and the integrity of our criminal justice system.”
“The alleged facts are so serious that they compromise the ability of Senator Menendez to effectively represent the people of our state,” he said. “Therefore, I am calling for his immediate resignation.”
The federal indictment against Menendez and his wife was unsealed on Friday and accused the senator and his wife of accepting bribes from three business people in exchange for actions that he took as chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee. According to the DOJ, the bribes were intended to protect the businessmen and to benefit Egypt.
Menendez faces up to 45 years in prison if convicted of the charges, which include conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, and conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right.
Menendez was forced to step down as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee because of Senate Democrat bylaws but he has insisted that he is innocent and suggested that the charges stem from a vast conspiracy of people who are trying to take him down.
Menendez offered an explanation at a press conference on Monday for why he had $480,000 in cash at his home when investigators executed a search warrant.
“For 30 years, I have withdrawn thousands of dollars in cash from my personal savings account, which I have kept for emergencies, and because of the history of my family facing confiscation in Cuba,” he said. “Now, this may seem old-fashioned, but these were monies drawn from my personal savings account based on the income that I have lawfully derived over those 30 years. I look forward to addressing other issues at trial.”
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